


Christmas in Chicago

by windsthatwhisper



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Lights, Dylan is a precious cinnamon roll that pat and jonny must protect, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 12:58:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16787413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windsthatwhisper/pseuds/windsthatwhisper
Summary: Dylan didn't expect to spend Christmas in Chicago, but he supposed he'll make do. Once he gets his decorations up, things will be easier.He didn't expect visitors to come knocking on his door at eight o'clock at night, when he's a fourth of the way through his eggnog and stuck in a tangle of Christmas lights.





	Christmas in Chicago

**Author's Note:**

> With the shit way the boys have been playing, I needed some Christmas fluff to lighten the mood. And now that Stromer is one of us, I needed to write a Kane/Toews/Strome fix asap.
> 
> This is short and not really whag I wanted, but have it anyway.

Dylan didn't expect to spend Christmas in Chicago, but he supposed he'll make do. Once he gets his decorations up, things will be easier. 

He'd been in Arizona for the longest time, so the snow when he'd head to the rink was always startling, and the cold temperatures were multiplied by forty. 

But, he was getting the hang of things.

So he decided to start decorating for Christmas. He had a moderately sized apartment, but not too many decorations. 

He put up nutcrackers and a holly garland on the stairwell. He had some door hangers he put on his side of the front door, and started pinning up lights along his bed frame, the kitchen doorway, and the edge of the marble slab on the kitchen island with command-strips.

He stopped halfway through to pour some eggnog from his gallon container and dump in whatever brand of alcohol he grabbed first.

And then the tree. 

It was plastic, but still looked nice: green and tall with big branches. Once it was secure to the stand, he started untangling the lights for said tree.

He didn't expect visitors to come knocking on his door at eight o'clock at night, when he's a fourth of the way through his eggnog and stuck in a tangle of Christmas lights.

He hopped to the door -- because his ankles were caught in the lights -- and opened the door with the hand not stuck at his side. 

And of course, with his luck, it's  _ Kaner and Tazer.  _

Great. What a wonderful “first” impression.

“Hey man,” Tazer greeted, quirking an eyebrow at Dylan's getup, “We've been texting your phone for half an hour, but you never responded. We wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Dylan's face heated in embarrassment. “Shit, sorry- uh, I didn't hear it go off. I was just… decorating.”

Kaner chuckled. “Really? Cause it seems like the decorations are decorating  _ you.” _

Dylan tried to come up with an explanation, but he was coming up blank that wouldn't make him sound like an idiot. 

"Need any help?"

Dylan wasn't sure who said it, because they both look kind of eager to assist Dylan in his decorating hassle. 

“Um,” he stuttered, “Yeah, sure.”

“Cool.” Kaner grinned and dragged Jonny by the ear inside. 

“Ow ow ow, watch the nails.” Tazer hissed, whacking the hand away when they were inside. 

Kaner pouted playfully. “Aw, did I hurt you? Let me kiss and make it better.”

He kissed Tazer's ear, and oh, then his lips, and okay. Dylan had his suspicions, but he supposed now they were confirmed.

“So,” he suggested to break the sudden silence, “Mind helping me untangle?”

“I got you.” Tazer smiled, and Dylan tried to ignore the  _ zing _ he felt go up his spine at the words. That was stupid. He was stupid. Tazer's face was stupid. 

Tazer's face was very pretty.

Dylan blinked himself out of his thoughts to shout at Kaner, “There’s eggnog in the fridge!”

Patrick did some sort of Irish jig in excitement and almost tripped and fell on his face trying to get to it.

“Careful.” Tazer said, not looking at all behind him, instead focused on spinning Dylan around repeatedly to remove the lights. 

“Fuck you!” Patrick shouted in retaliation.

Tazer smirked in amusement. 

Dylan watched him, a little curiously, at the raw emotion he was showing. 

When Dylan was finally free, he tripped over the final yank of the lights around his ankles. Tazer caught him by the wrist. “Woah, easy dude. We just got you. Can't afford to break you.”

“Yeah,” Kaner piped in, rearranging placement of a nutcracker on a side table, “An assist  _ and  _ a goal, in your team debut? That's pretty sick, man.”

Dylan blushed, but internally preened at the praise. “Thanks. You guys are, uh,  _ you,  _ you know?”

_ Because that makes any sense, Strome.  _ He scolded himself in his head. 

Kaner hummed and pressed a couple buttons on his phone. “Thanks. Now, let's get to decorating. We've got the supplies. We've got the alcoholic eggnog. Now all we need-” he tapped his screen, “-is music.”

‘Run Run Rudolph’ blared through the speaker of Kaner's phone, and the blond smiled in a sick, evil grin. “Let's get started!”

They focused mainly on the tree, stringing up lights and putting on ornaments. Tazer handled the top of the tree, because even though Dylan was tall, he couldn't reach the top very well.

Kaner danced around the living room, singing horribly loud and off-key to Christmas songs. Dylan joined in, because  _ come on.  _ It's Christmas time. And somehow, by a Christmas miracle, Tazer started bopping his head to the the music, too. 

“Jonny, look!” Kaner suddenly cried, pulling an ornament out of its protective box, “It's of Dylan and McDavid! It's a picture ornament. Jonny, why don't we have one of us?”

“Because you thought it was too cheesy.” Tazer mused, smiling fondly at his boyfriend. 

Kaner blinked. "Oh yeah."

Kaner put the ornament on the tree. Dylan reached into the box to find another ornament, and paused when he saw what he grabbed. 

It was the Coyotes’ logo. 

His thumb swiped over some dust that had gathered on the glass fur. Tazer peered over his shoulder to look. “You okay?” 

Dylan nodded. “Yeah, I just- honestly I forgot I had this. I bought it the first Christmas I spent with the ‘yotes. It seems like so long ago.”

His fingers clenched a little in anger. If Arizona didn't want him, Chicago surely will. 

“Keep going,” he huffed, pretending to be annoyed, “I still have all these boxes of ornament balls to put up.”

Kaner rolled his eyes, playing along. “Such a drama queen, sheesh.”

“I'll show you drama queen.”

He tackled Kaner onto the floor, the blond squawking and failing about as they wrestled. Tazer paid them no mind, just continued to perfect where the lights on the branches needed to be, how much each ornament needed to be spaced out. 

-

At eleven thirty-two, they were done. 

Dylan’s glad he only had four boxes of decorations. 

The three of them collapsed onto the couch, each cradling a mug of eggnog. They were all pleasantly hazy, light and loose but still very conscious and aware about everything.

“The place looks great, guys,” Dylan smiled, fingers splaying over his mug, “Thank you for all the help.”

“Not a problem,” Kaner assured, “This was a lot of fun. I love decorating for Christmas.”

“There was a tree in my condo on November first.” Tazer mourned behind the rim of his mug. 

Patrick shrugged. “Like I said.”

Dylan chuckled. “Well, I appreciate it. It feels more, I dunno, it's more homey, I guess. It's weird being away from Arizona. I haven't lived anywhere else during the season for a while.”

Kaner patted his knee. “Well hey, on the bright side, you've got a whole new team to be with, and maybe even win the Cup with.”

“Not the way we've been playing lately.” Tazer snorted. 

Kaner kicked his foot harshly. “Shut up. There's been a lot of changes lately. We're all still getting used to them. We'll figure it out. And if we don't make it this year, we will next.”

_ That's what we said last season,  _ Tazer thought, but kept his mouth shut. 

Dylan smiled small at them. “So. Anyone up for watching  _ The Santa Clause?” _

They watched the first, and then the second, because they  _ could,  _ gushed over Carol and Scott's budding romance. 

And then they watched the third, and cooed over the baby, because duh, it’s a  _ baby.  _

Dylan settled back into the couch, melting into the muscle of Tazer's thigh against his, always present, and Kaner's arm hooked with his. 

This. This is what he'd been missing in Arizona. 

It was everything he could ever ask for, for Christmas. 


End file.
